RUN-INS WITH THE LAW

❚ 1992 – Tipple fired a gun over the heads of skinheads who were tampering with his car. In the same year he was acquitted of shooting and wounding three would-be burglars who were trying to steal motorcycles from his farm shed.

❚ 1999 – sued the police for defamation over comments made when his firearms dealing licence was revoked. A Christchurch District Court judge found that police made mistakes and gave him his licence back along with $25,000 in costs. A settlement was reached in the defamation case eight years later.

❚ 2002 – arrested and imprisoned for 21 months in the United States for failing to declare weapons after attempting to bring 29 hunting guns and rifles into New Zealand in cardboard boxes.

❚ 2008 – lost his driving licence for eight months after a high speed North Island car chase that reportedly went for 16 kilometres before police road spikes put an end to it.

❚ 2014 – won a case against Customs in the High Court after the border agency seized 45 blank firing pistols imported from Italy. Tipple’s lawyers argued they were imitation firearms.

❚ 2016 – is pulled over doing 177kmh near the Lindis Pass and the officer calls for backup because Tipple is ‘‘so confrontational’’. The judge disqualified him from driving and mentioned previous convictions for driving at dangerous speed in 1982, dangerous driving in 1980, dangerous driving and failing to stop for police in 1989, and reckless driving and failing to stop for police in 2008.